


I Don't Want to Do Wrong

by ObliqueOptimism



Series: A Friend of Mine [4]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-12
Packaged: 2020-01-11 23:38:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18434498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ObliqueOptimism/pseuds/ObliqueOptimism
Summary: Klaus's best friend is an old war buddy. (Luther isn't sure what to make of that).





	I Don't Want to Do Wrong

**Author's Note:**

> as always thanks to sam for the quick beta. and listen i know no one asked for more of this stuff but i hope you like it anyway. i have one more planned atm (and i've even started it!) but if you guys got ideas for what i call phil's verse let me know and maybe it'll get written. i make no promises.

Luther was raised to respect his elders, people who were experts in their field of study, and veterans. 

Unless he was in a hurry to a mission, Luther would always make time to help the elderly when he saw them, opening doors or helping them cross the street. Sometimes they would yell at him and say that they didn’t need his help, but more often than not they would talk a bit with him as he helped with the task at hand.

Honestly Luther didn’t run into experts that often. Sometimes on a mission he’d run into someone who was crucial to the job and he always listened to their advice before continuing on. 

He always thanked veterans for their service if he knew they were a vet. He and his siblings had been given powers and so should use them to save people while veterans didn’t have the luxury of powers and yet still served. They demanded the utmost respect. 

Of course he also respected the police officers and firefighters and the like. They had the similar reasons as the veterans as to why they deserved his recognition. 

And then, in the middle of the apocalypse week, he met Phil.

Phil was not only his elder but a veteran. He was also nice and kind and listened to Luther as he talked about his confusing emotions about his father. With a pat on his shoulder (he was never afraid of touching Luther, not like some people were) he gave him sound advice. How this seemingly normal man who never wanted to miss an episode of Ellen got so wise was a mystery. 

Was it because he watched Ellen? Did she empart him with this wisdom? Should he start watching Ellen with Phil and Klaus every day?

He’d even seen Phil put Five in his place, it was a beautiful sight to behold. Five wasn’t even able to bring up being older than him as Phil had a little over ten years on the apparent thirteen year old. 

Which as far as Five could figure, the main reason they were able to save the world was that the commision didn’t see Phil trying to help out. Turned out having a stable and sane adult in the group who hadn’t had an abused childhood was the key.

Phil was over at least once a week, sometimes for a few hours, sometimes all day. Luther was usually happy to see him, he was such a lovely man.

Most of the time.

The main problem with Phil was that he was best friends with _Klaus_.

Just the other day Luther said something slightly insensitive and he wasn’t sure what it was, he’d only mentioned that night that he had gone out and gotten high and went to a rave. But then Phil looked _pissed_ and moved as if he was going to tackle Luther when Klaus wrapped his arms around his friend and said, “He doesn’t know! I haven’t told him about dying.” Whatever that meant.

The two of them had a sudden and quiet conversation with Phil lightly slapping Klaus upside the head and walking away.

Klaus turned to Luther and shrugged with a (fake?) smile, “Phil may be coming down with the dementia!” before running away after his friend.

Which if that was true was sad and worrisome, and if it wasn’t then it was just a rude and stupid thing to say about your apparent best friend. 

Luther did not understand how they became best friends. Just one day, Klaus had a 70 year old shadow who was ready to throw down if someone said something bad about Klaus. According to them they had met during the Vietnam war? Something about time travel. But if Klaus had accidentally time traveled to the war, why didn’t he come home right away? How long had he stayed? 

And why didn’t Klaus bring up the fact that he was (apparently) a vet more often? Remind them that he had been to Vietnam? The most it was talked about was one time when Klaus made some Vietnamese food and the night that Phil threw a party at a bar for him. Luther never understood why they would throw a party for a supposedly sober Klaus in a bar but Klaus never had a drink that night. Luther had watched while he met other veterans who all claimed to know “Spook”.

Luther would love to discuss with Klaus what it was like to be away from home for so long. They could swap stories of Klaus’s time in the war and Luther could talk about the moon. It was similar, right? They’d both been away from home when they didn’t want to be. Right? Maybe Klaus hadn’t been away for as long as he claimed? Ten months was nothing compared to four years anyway. Wasn’t he right?

But it was hard, sometimes, to remember that Phil was an elder and a veteran and a great guy, when he helped Klaus be an annoying shit. They’d sometimes play simple pranks on Luther. They were never harmful or long lasting, but he’d hear them laughing afterwards. And then there was the night when they were all eating and Luther said something, he couldn’t remember what, what he did remember was that Phil _started a food fight_ by throwing mashed potatoes directly at Luther’s face.

“Still a sharp shooter, baby!” Klaus clapped and cheered. 

The table had been silent before Ben quickly materialized and took some of Klaus’s food and threw that at Diego. It was an all out war after that. 

Could he say that? That it was a war? Or was it insensitive to Phil? (And Klaus? He had to stop forgetting that Klaus was a veteran too.)

And then after the welcome home party (sometimes Luther still forgot that Klaus had been gone, because to him he hadn’t been) another supposed war buddy of Klaus’s would just show up. This one had a cane and would point with it or poke you with it but never hit you with it. Luther once heard Cade tell Ben that he would never hit any of them with it, not even as a playful threat, no friendly light jabs. He’d said something about a broken jaw? Ben had looked horrified during the conversation. 

However Cade was the opposite of Phil. 

Luther understood the friendship between Cade and Klaus. 

Cade didn’t visit as much as Phil did. Said he lived farther away, also whenever he showed up he’d fling the front door open and yell something about breaking out of jail because “none of you fuckers ever want to kidnap me!” If Klaus was in earshot he would be heard cackling as he ran towards Cade to give him some of the tightest hugs Luther had ever seen.

But when the three of them where in the house together, and then if Klaus made Dave corporeal? Luther would find a reason to leave the house. 

Ben and Dave seemed to get along. Which was nice. If two ghosts had to follow his brother around at least they could be friends.

Luther also wasn’t sure if he should give a shovel talk to Dave. Sure, he didn’t want Dave to break Klaus’s heart (it was obvious how much Klaus loved Dave) but he also didn’t see how Dave could break it more than he did when he died. 

Also how do you threaten a ghost?

But then Dave gave _Luther_ a shovel talk. He sought him out and sat him down and explained how he needed to be nicer to Klaus. Claimed Klaus had PTSD, which Luther had never noticed. In the middle of the talk, Ben came up and very slowly spoke about how Klaus didn’t want him to know “but fuck Klaus” and then told Luther about the time he got high and reminded him that before he got high he had strangled Klaus and then threw him on the floor and then after he got high he had _left Klaus to die_.

Because that night Klaus had _died_ when Luther wasn’t even twenty feet away.

Then the trio walked by the door, Cade quickly catching Klaus’s attention so that he didn’t see Luther talking to ghosts and Phil stared him dead in the eyes as he mimed shooting a gun at him.

Oh god when Phil and Cade passed would they become part of Klaus’s ghost entourage? 

Luther did feel bad that even though all these Vietnam war veterans visited the house he constantly forgot that Klaus was one too. 

He just didn’t seem like he had just gotten back from a war. Not that Luther knew what that would be like, but he seemed like normal Klaus. Except sober now. But as he got to know his brother more, he sometimes thought Klaus’s smile seemed plastic, that his laugh was maybe forced, that he would flinch at loud noises. 

And then Luther walked in on Phil talking Klaus down from a panic attack or a flashback or _something_ , he wasn’t sure which it was. Could it be both at once? He watched from the doorway as Phil talked to Klaus and Klaus visibly calming down. It was humbling. 

Luther started to understand the friendship between Phil and Klaus after that. Phil stabilized Klaus like he’d never seen anyone do before. Sure, Dave seemed to do wonders for Klaus but Luther half the time couldn’t _see_ Dave so he wasn’t always sure how much he helped Klaus. Phil he could see. He could see how Phil would sometimes put a comforting hand on Klaus’s shoulder to steady him, how he would distract Klaus when he started looking for a fix, how he would force Klaus to sit down and watch Ellen whenever he was around.

“Why?” Luther once asked.

“He’s still fresh from the front,” Phil said, glancing at Klaus who at the time was making out with a ghost in the middle of the sitting room because Klaus had no shame, “he needs some stability and normalcy. Ellen is on at four every week day. It’s a good start to get him back to civilian life.”

Phil was so smart.

Honestly, Luther thought later as he watched Phil start a poker game with Klaus (saying no to ghost helpers and no to strip poker), he wanted to be like Phil when he grew up.


End file.
